The True Meaning of Being a Halliwell
by Liv-x-Case-Benson
Summary: How did Prue die? What were Piper and Phoebe's immediate reactions? Here's my version of the missing link. [Oneshot]


**The True Meaning of Being a Halliwell **

By: Piper Chris Melinda Halliwell

**(Set after Shax attacks Prue and Piper the second time) **

Leo had orbed himself and Phoebe into the living room of the manor (or what was left of it).

"Piper, Prue!! Where are you!?" Phoebe called as she looked around the room at the mess that Shax had left. _'Piper's going to go crazy when she sees this.'_ Phoebe thought. As she neared the window, she saw a piece of something pink underneath fragments of what used to be a huge stain-glass window, but then fear shot through her body when she realized who it was.

"Piper...oh Piper, come on...say something!! Leo, they're over here!!" Phoebe yelled as she cleared the glass from Piper's body, finding Prue as well. Phoebe held Piper in her lap when he ran over and healed her. Piper was conscious in two minutes, but for some reason, Phoebe had a very bad feeling in the pit of her stomach about Prue. And when Leo didn't even try to heal her, it only got worse.

"Leo, what are you doing just sitting there!? Heal Prue!!" Piper yelled and went to roll over to see her, but Phoebe stopped her. "Pheebs, what's the matter?" she asked as Phoebe looked like she could cry at any second, but all Phoebe could do was keep her eyes fixed on her older sister hoping, praying against everything that she wasn't right. Piper looked closer at her youngest sister and saw what she didn't want to see: fear, the kind that you never want, the kind that might mean...her sister...was...

"What's taking so long?! What, Leo why did you stop, save her!!! You have to do something!!!" Piper yelled as the realization hit her like a thunderbolt.

She struggled out of Phoebe's tight death-grip and over to Prue. She dropped to her knees and pulled her oldest sister to her chest. Her tears hadn't come yet...the shock was too fresh...the pain still too sensitive to be felt yet. Leo orbed out leaving the two sisters time to cope. Phoebe made her way over to her now oldest sister.

"Piper, you have to let go! It's not going to do any good just holding Prue's body..." Phoebe told her as she tried to pry Piper's arms off of her sister.

Piper looked at Phoebe like she hadn't heard a word she'd said...like they were just a lost echo in all this madness...but then she saw Phoebe's own tears. Piper didn't want to let go ever, but she knew that it was true; the look in her youngest sister's eyes told her that she couldn't deny it any longer and, very reluctantly, she laid Prue's body back on the floor. She then walked over to the picture of the three of them that was resting on the mantle and punched the glass shattering it onto the carpet. Phoebe noticed the large cut that ran across four of her knuckles, but she figured that Piper couldn't feel anything. She was numb just like Phoebe was, the shock was still there and it would take a day or so for it to wear off. Cautiously, Phoebe approached her older sister.

"Piper, can I clean that up for you?" Phoebe asked as Piper brought her hand, that was now beginning to throb, up to her face to look at it. She tried to straighten her fingers, but she winced in pain. She only nodded as Phoebe led her over to the dining room table, sitting her in the chair that had its back to the disaster. Phoebe then walked into the kitchen to grab a cold cloth and the first aid kit from the cupboard; she walked back out and took the chair next to Piper.

"Can I see it?" she asked as Piper brought her hand to rest on the table and Phoebe covered it with the cloth and pressed on it to stop the bleeding.

"Ouch, that hurts!! Why are you the strong one now?" Piper asked. Phoebe looked up with tears running down her cheeks.

"I'm not...it's just that I have to help you now...is all. I—" Phoebe couldn't finish her sentence; Piper brought her other hand up to Phoebe's face and wiped away a tear.

"What are we going to do now, Phoebe? I'm the oldest...and I don't have the answer." Piper said as Phoebe took the cloth off of her sister's hand and put a little antibiotic on it.

"I don't know either." She replied as she placed a gauze pad on her sister's hand and wrapped a bandage around three times, tying it in a bow at the end. Piper stood and walked upstairs, never once looking at her fallen oldest sister.

Phoebe knew that she should be the one who 'lost it' because of Prue's death, but Piper needed her now and she knew that when the time was right, she wouldn't have to be strong anymore. She walked over to her eldest sister and brushed the hair out of her face.

"I guess this is really it huh, Prue? Ha, just look at me talking to a dead body; you might think I'm crazy, but I know you can hear me. Prue this really hurts...I think I know how you felt when Andy died now; helpless...scared of what would happen next...it isn't fair on any of us, but somehow we'll get through it. I love you and I know Piper does too. Well, I guess you can't stay here forever; it'd look a little weird if a neighbor came by and saw me talking to you. Leo." Phoebe called and he appeared in seconds.

"Do you want me to take her somewhere so this won't look suspicious, Phoebe?" he asked letting his own tears fall. They'd had enough experience to know that it was better if someone "found her" then if "they called it in". _'Darryl would do it better than anyone else though. I'll call and talk to him, but not now.'_ She thought.

"No, I'll call Darryl. Leo, what happened to her?" Phoebe asked.

"This piece of glass." He said pulling it out of her head. "It killed her on impact...it got her temple before she had time to react. She wouldn't have felt a lot if that's what you're wondering, Phoebe." He told her standing back up and hugging her.

"I just wish that I could've been here, Leo. If I had maybe she'd—" she said puling back from him.

"No, it wouldn't have made a difference. You don't need to feel guilty; we changed it..."

"Yeah we changed it, but at a high price. I guess I should call Darryl now." She said walking over, but Leo grabbed her arm.

"No what you need to do now, Phoebe, is go and be with Piper. I'll tell him in person." He said Orbing out. Phoebe walked up the stairs and stopped at Piper's door. She could hear her trying her best not to cry, but even she knew that wasn't possible now. _'It must have finally sunk in.'_ she thought to herself.

"Piper...can I come in?" Phoebe didn't hear her say no, so she gently pushed the door open to find Piper lying on her bed facing the window.

Phoebe walked over to her bed, but stopped herself from lying down beside her distraught oldest sister. At first, she thought about leaving and just letting her deal with it on her own_. 'No, we're all the other has now, well apart from Dad and Leo, I can't leave; I have to help her.'_ "Piper..."

"Phoe...be?" she asked in a soft voice, tired from crying.

"Yes Piper?" she asked; to her surprise Piper rolled over and faced her; she noticed that her sister's red and puffy eyes matched hers like she knew they would.

"Stay here?" was all she said, but Phoebe knew what she meant as she laid down beside her. Phoebe was going to lie with her older sister in her arms, but Piper had something different in mind.

"No, you can lay with me instead. Phoebe, I'm not that strong either and it's not fair to put that role on you; I realize that now." Piper told her steadying her voice for a brief moment. Phoebe laid down and Piper wrapped her arms around her.

"You didn't put that role on me, Piper, I guess I just sorta fell into it. I mean with Prue gone I'm still the youngest, but I'm also the middle sister."

"Yeah, but you needed me and I...I just went off on my own and didn't think about you. We're the only ones...left now with these powers...and...And..." Piper's tears overcame her again and Phoebe sat up against the headboard and pulled Piper closer.

"You're upset; everyone will be over this, but the important thing is that we're still here and that we have each other to lean on. Our powers... they make up part of who we are, but sisters come first; you must know that." Phoebe told her as she wiped away a tear from her sister's cheek. Piper sat upright and took Phoebe's hand in hers that was resting on the bed.

"Yeah, but I guess Prue's question has some truth to it. What good is it to be a witch if all it does is get the people we love killed? First Mom, then Prue...what good is it to protect the innocent if we can't even protect the ones we love?!" Piper said as her tears overcame her again. "I—I mean, isn't the name Halliwell supposed to signify a family of powerful witches? How are we supposed to be powerful when these things happen?!" Piper asked not bothering to keep her tears in check. Phoebe understood that part and the tears that she's been trying so hard to keep in broke free.

"Prue w—wasn't supposed to die; I—I should've been there with you!!" Phoebe cried. Piper wrapped her arms around her grief-stricken sister and their bodies shook as they cried. After a couple minutes, both Piper and Phoebe were asleep. Leo walked in to check on them and pulled the quilt, at the foot of his wife's bed, over them and walked out.

_Prue, Patty and Grams were watching the scene that had just happened. Prue turned toward her mother. _

_"I wish I could help them through this...this isn't fair!! I'm the oldest...I should be there to help them." Prue told Patty. _

_"I know, but they'll be alright. It'll take time though...for them and you. I promise that they'll be okay without you there." She told her eldest daughter. _

_"You were willing to change the events that led to Piper's death and you did, but at a high price. You can still be there...in spirit; we always are." Grams told her as Prue turned back to the scene of her sisters sleeping._

Phoebe rolled over, in Piper's embrace, and looked at the clock.

"No way!!" she yelled waking Piper.

"What?! Where's the demon; I'll kill it!!" Piper said sitting up suddenly, but Phoebe put an arm around her sister.

"Relax Piper, there's no demon, but it's seven o'clock at night; we slept for five hours straight!" Phoebe told her sister.

"Wow, but I guess we needed it. Hey I think I have the answer to Prue's question." Phoebe bit her lip afraid of what Piper would say. "It is worth it to be a witch because you can save more people from demons that kill them. What did you think I was gonna say?" Piper asked after Phoebe sighed in relief.

"I thought you were going to say that you didn't want your powers anymore...that you'd give up your heritage." Phoebe told her as Piper hugged her.

"Being a Halliwell means death, destruction and heartache yes, but it's much more rewarding to save people and anyway you'd never give up your powers, Phoebe." Piper told her as she pulled back and stood up.

"Being a Halliwell means being a person who never gives up and puts family before everything." Phoebe said as she stood up.

"And that's us; always and forever. I love you, Prue." Piper said to the ceiling.

"I love you too, Prue. Hey you don't love me?" Phoebe pouted ad Piper put an arm around her.

"I'll always love you, Pheebs; don't worry about that." She said as they walked out of her bedroom downstairs to the rest of their lives. _"I love you two, too." Prue told them from above._

They knew it'd be a long, hard road without Prue, but as long as they had each other they knew they'd be okay.

The End.

A/N: How was that for a link? Please read and review.

Piper Chris Melinda Halliwell


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